A Tendou x FOC Haikyu!! fanfiction.
In which a girl who struggles to express herself finds comfort in the most unlikely of faces. There is a lot of darkness in the world, and Maeko realizes just how tightly she must hold onto the traces of light tha...
After two buses and another hour of walking on foot, Maeko started to wonder if she made a mistake.
Her eyes were glued to the back of Tendou's head, watchful and a little suspicious.
But then he turned his head to throw a quick glance over his shoulder, and the smile on his face was so excited and uplifting. "We're almost there."
Her expression softened. She internally scolded herself for being so harsh and judgemental with him at every possible turn. It was startling how quickly everybody, herself included, seemed able to find and then latch onto the worst in him.
Even in the dark, there was no mistaking the gigantic gateway, with the letters P-L-A-Y-L-A-N-D scribbled across it in harsh red ink, that the two of them were approaching. A shiver ran down the length of Maeko's spine as they passed underneath it and into the eerily quiet, abandoned amusement park.
Maeko lived here her entire life, but she'd never heard of this place.
Then again, she'd also never heard of the arcade, but she ended up enjoying herself there once she gave it a chance.
But this, her brain countered aggressively, has a far more foreboding and creepy aura to it.
Tendou spun a full circle with his arms in the air, stopping once he was facing Maeko on the second spin. "We have arrived! What do you think?"
Maeko glanced over her shoulder because she got that creepy feeling that she was being watched from an unseen corner.
"Why did you bring me here?" She asked with hint of distress. It was just a hint, practically unnoticeable, but she got the impression that Tendou easily picked it up.
"You didn't like the loud music or the big crowd at Ayume's party." Tendou explained, slapping one finger at a time against his opposite palm to count each thing she disliked. "I figured a real amusement park, with even louder music and an even bigger crowd, would just give you another panic attack."
He acknowledged her breakdown in the spare bedroom so nonchalantly, as if there was nothing unusual or strange about it. His logic, although sensible enough, was offered so straightforwardly, with no awkward avoidance of what happened to Maeko, no treatment or judgement of her panic as something unspeakable or bad, that she couldn't help but laugh.
He was refreshing.
Suddenly eager to see what he had in mind for this place, Maeko walked up beside him, close and comfortable. Tendou had to tilt his head down to get a proper look at her and, when he did, those big, scary red eyes were gentle and subdued, half-closed like a cat waking up from its afternoon nap.
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[Brief intermission to appreciate hair down Tendou.......... ok proceed]
"What do you want to do?" Maeko was looking in every which direction, unsure where to start.
